This week’s Clean Plate Club guest needs no introduction: if you’re reading this and you haven’t visited Smitten Kitchen, you have your food blog priorities out of whack. Deb is the queen of the form, the sun at the center of the food blog universe. Don’t believe me? How many food bloggers can you name with tens of millions of readers a month, profiles in The New York Times, and a best-selling cookbook to boot? Deb is the real deal and I’m so lucky she agreed to talk to me over Skype, though we did get into a huge fight about photography. Let me explain.

We’re shaking things up this week with an exclusive one-on-one interview with the infamous/notorious/outrageous Ruth Bourdain, the brainchild of The Food Section’s Josh Friedland. In this exclusive one hour, in-depth interview, Josh opens up about Ruth Bourdain’s genesis, from avatar to book deal to James Beard Award to the front page of the New York Times. It’s a pretty terrific story and I thank Josh for taking the time to share it with us. If you want to listen in iTunes (like, in your car or at the gym), you can find it here. (While you’re there, take a moment to review the show, wouldya?)

Oh and if you’re curious about the farro salad that I make for Craig at the start…